Latin America Takes a Step Away from U.S. Policies and Towards Independent Future

"This weekend marked the first time in years that El Salvador, who leads the world in youth homicide rates, had no homicides. At the same time, the Latin America summit is going on where Latin America is pleading America to change its war on drug policies, there's a connection there", writes author Hector Gonzalez.

The
Latin American Summit took place this weekend in Cartagena, Colombia
where all Latin American countries including the U.S.A. and Canada met
to discuss foreign policy. The outcome was a testimony of what is
occurring in the Americas in regards to foreign policy and the U.S.’s
de-escalation of influence, power and clout towards the Americas. Simply
stated, the tables are turning.

It
was an interesting weekend to say the least, the growing feelings that
Latinos have been holding on to for years have now finally surfaced!
Feelings like, lack of trust towards the U.S., a sense that the U.S. has
let the America’s down, and most importantly that after the U.S letting
down the America’s so much; perhaps there are other Super Powers
willing to treat the continents south of the border with a bit more
dignity. China, for example, appears able and willing.Reports
on media wires report that the U.S. and Canada where isolated by the
President’s of the Latin American countries, that they rolled their eyes
when Obama spoke, cut him off in conversation, condescended him, and
let it be known that the unified collective was a taking a stance
against American foreign policy.

The American perception towards Latinos

During
the 80’s and 90’s it was cool to say that you were Latino/ Latina- an
exotic culture with exotic women, vibrancy, and festive identity. The
references were everywhere in American pop culture such as Daisy
Fuentes, Gloria Estefan, Salma Hayek and Jennifer Lopez. By the late
90’s I remember a commentary on television talking about Latino Culture
in popular media boldly stating “Latinos are in style”. It was during
this time that Carlos Santana released yet another classic album, Ricky
Martin was regarded as a sexual icon and everyone wanted to be a Salsa
dancer, or at least wanted to date one.

The
tables quickly turned in the years that followed. In the year 2000 an
article was released in the San Jose Mercury News where on the front
page of the editorial in big bold and black letters it read, “Latinos
Are Now the Largest Minority in America”, it was a big deal -- not only
were Latinos now the biggest minority group, the article was fore
telling of a near future where 1 out of every 5 kids born in the U.S.A
would be Latino, 25% of the population would be Spanish speaking, and
surely there would be a day that the Latino power in numbers would be a
force to be reckoned with. Whatever positive image that the general
public had towards Latinos, it was quickly thrown out the window and was
replaced by a different representation of Latinoss, invading aliens who
were bringing down America.

To
understand why in one generation; Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek are
such iconic representatives of Latin Americans, to a new generation
where on the Jimmy Kimmel Late Night Show he has a stereotypical
depiction of a Mexican, the character ‘Guillermo’, who is overweight and
ugly, is in fact to understand America’s Latin American foreign policy.
How such a character is accepted in American culture this day in age,
be allowed on national television, and have it be funny to the general
American public is a testimony to the negative growing sentiment that
Americans have towards Latino’s, especially during the past decade when
immigration has been a hot topic. ‘Guillermo’s’ is a stereotypical
Mexican fat guy, it’s no secret that Mexico has an obesity crisis as it
is the second most obese nation in the world only second to the U.S.A.,
what does appear to be a secret though is the direct correlation of
NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement) to Mexican obesity. The
policy literally not only contributes to malnutrition in Mexico but the
policy is responsible for shipping all of Mexico’s fruits and vegetables
to the U.S.A. depriving them of their own food and instead replacing
the Mexican diet with processed food, giving them a diet where it is
cheaper to drink Coca Cola then it is to drink water!

Guillermo
isn’t the only one used to stigmatize Latinos, there are other iconic
images also circulating in the media, images of gang members with
Tattoo’s on their faces, home grown immigrant policies boiling up the
immigration debate, and of course the infamous Mexican Cartels—all of
them directly products of American Foreign Policy.

The United States loosing it’s clout in the Americas

There
was a time when the U.S.A. would give orders to Central and South
American countries and they would follow, not so much anymore. Here in
the U.S., the general public has a negative portrayal of Fidel Castro.
Years back the U.S. might have been able to convince its allies down
below to isolate Castro -- the only problem is that the U.S. and the
Americas have already played this game. In the 70’s and 80’s the
Americas were heavily militarized. The story was always the same, the
government of a designated Latin American country went to battle with
the leftist guerrilla groups of that country—the leftist mostly
supported by the Soviets and Cubans would battle the governments who
were fighting for democracy supported by the U.S. Common logic would
suggest that the governments of such countries not only believed in
democracy and America, but were willing to divide their countries in
battle to catastrophic proportions believing that one day their
sacrifice would pay off. In places like El Salvador, Nicaragua,
Guatemala, and Honduras the general consensus might suggest that such
sacrifice never paid off.

During
the summit, one of the most embarrassing topics was that all 33
countries participating in the summit with the exception of the U.S. and
Canada, all voted to invite Cuba to the next summit in 2015 -- a shift
in view points as Cuba has historically been demonized by the U.S. and
it’s supporters. Yet, the Latin American nations all agreed that lifting
the embargo on Cuba would be the fastest way to pushing Cuba to one day
be a democratic nation. The only real conclusion as to why Obama did
not vote in favor of inviting Cuba to the 2015 summit in Panama was that
in doing so, he would lose votes in Florida since the Cuban exiles in
Florida are a strong voting block. A disingenuous and truly an
embarrassing move by Obama. Many participants in the summit vowed that
if Cuba is not invited in 2015, they would not participate in the
summit, expressing a symbol of unity for the Latin American nations and
backhand at America, that Latin America doesn’t just have to follow, it
could also make its own conclusions and determine its own policies. 10
years ago it might have been blasphemous to question the U.S., not
anymore.

By
American’s accepting such characters as Guillermo, the general public
has literally under-minded Latin America’s capabilities. Brazil for
example is the 6th largest economy in the world, more powerful then
Canada, with Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru trailing right behind.
All along while the U.S. has been focusing on the Middle East, China
and Russia have crept-in, heavily investing in the growth of South
America so much to the extent that many countries in South America
identify their business relations more with Asia and it’s developing
countries more so then they identify with the U.S.

In
regards to Cuba, it was interesting to see that all Latin nations stood
up for Cuba to have a voice in the summit, recognizing the Cuban people
as brothers as they have a common lineages to Spain and colonialism,
Catholicism, and further more the ultimate martyr against America’s
foreign policy. Latinos may not agree with Castro, but they understand
the sentiment of poor relations with the U.S.A. Cuba might be the black
sheep of the family, never the less, still a brother.

Obama
tried to stigmatize Cuba at the summit, it didn’t work. The Americas
rolled their eyes and laughed it off. The Red Scare propaganda of the
past does not work anymore.

The War on Drugs

Interestingly
enough the main topic of the summit was the War on Drugs as the
Americas called on Obama to change his drug policies. Obama, knowing
that the Americas are having a growing interest in legalizing drugs all
together, refused before even attending the summit to engage in an open
and honest debate about the War on Drugs.

Drugs
are the truest form of free market there is, with no respect to foreign
policy, law or borders, drugs simply fill the demand. The Americas
argue that by the U.S. changing its War on Drug policies including
legalizing drugs all together, Latin America would be able to eradicate
its violence problem mostly stemming from powerful cartels operating a
drug flow from South America, through Central America- Mexico and ending
up in the United States. Leaving a trail of bloodshed along the way.

President
Otto Perez of Guatemala, Filipe Calderon of Mexico and Juan Manuel
Santos of Colombia led the pack in boldly stating that the War on Drugs
is simply not working, and the U.S. needs to change its drug policies.

At
the core of the argument lies a dichotomy based on Latin identity,
criminality. In one end of the spectrum is the criminalization of
Latinos in the American Judicial system helping perpetuate the ongoing
depiction of the Latino as a criminal. On the other end of the spectrum
lies what the debate would ultimate address which is that; drugs only
travel North, legalizing drugs would mean the decriminalization of
Latinos who make up 50% of the California correctional system for almost
always drug related crimes, and lastly- the core of the problem, that
all of this violence stems from the U.S.’s addiction to drugs. Not
because the Americas is inheritably a violent place, but because the
U.S. has a high demand for drugs, a market so unregulated.

The
legalization of drugs in America would also mean the demise of the
prison industrial complex. I’m not sure what is more embarrassing to
admit, that the U.S. has a prison industrial complex where it houses 25%
of the entire prison population in the world- 80% of them being drug
related crimes or having to admit that the bloodshed in Latin America is
all because of the U.S.’s heavy addiction to drugs.

There’s Hope

In
all reality the U.S. and Latin America do have hope in being able to
maintain their ties as close allies. Mainly because of two reason, one
being that the U.S. is becoming more Latino and secondly because the
Americas are becoming more developed.

In
actually, most Latin Americans do have admiration and respect for
America, mainly because they have family members who live in the U.S.
But Latinos are also weary of America’s special interest having
exploited the Americas for so long and not been giving anything back in
return.

A
perfect way to illustrate the point would be that of a person who
stole, cheated and lied to his family. That person will always be
welcomed back to the family with open arms so long as the person has
corrected their ways and admitted to their wrong doing.

To
Obama’s credit, according to the President Calderon of Mexico, this was
the first time an American president ever sat down for the entire
summit and listened quietly to everyone else’s concerns.

Hector Gonzalez is a writer, hip hop artist and proud father originally from San Jose, and now is
based out of Southern California. He has been published in numerous
books and publications and also has performed across the U.S as an emcee
by the name of "Hegotistic".